Are you making the most out of your digital giving?
Whether Covid-19 recently introduced you to online giving or you’ve had it for a while, you’ve probably come to realize that the digital world has taken over traditional methods of tithes and offerings.
But did you know that most churches are actually not using their online giving to its full potential?
We always want to help you steward your finances and your time well. So, here are 7 underutilized SecureGive features that can save time, ensure you’re fully utilizing the platform, and help you grow your giving.
1. Customization
Make your SecureGive page unique to your church and familiar to your attendees with our customization options for messaging, call to action terms, and branding.
We all know the importance of thanking your donors. Without them, funded ministry would not be possible. SecureGive automatically sends a “thank you” email when a transaction is completed. Take your thank you one step farther by personalizing this message to your church. Not sure where to begin? Click here to find out how to edit your custom message.
Did you know that you can also create custom call to action terms in SecureGive? By default, your donors are presented with two options when they log into SecureGive: “click to donate” and “click to purchase.” But maybe your church uses different language than this. You’re able to update the terms, “donate” and “pay”, to verbiage that more accurately reflects your church language so that donors experience the same familiarity in SecureGive as they do when giving during Sunday service. Instructions on how to update your custom terms can be found here.
You can also create a more branded look to your SecureGive page. Many churches work hard to create a recognizable and memorable brand. You can tie this right into your SecureGive system by uploading a church image or logo and adjusting your colors. This will make your SecureGive page feel like an extension of your church website so that donors feel a sense of familiarity. You can find additional instructions on how to do this here.
2. Off-Set Fee
We know it takes money to do ministry and that’s why we want to keep as much as we can in your pocket. We believe in keeping rates low and are happy to review your rates with you once a year to ensure they’re as low as possible. But even with these low rates, we still can’t make them zero (after all, card companies charge to process transactions, whether it’s a charitable donation or you’re buying a burger and fries.) But by enabling the fee off-set feature, you give your donors the option to cover the merchant processing fee for the amount they plan to donate. This extra donation can still count to their end-of-year giving statement.
For your givers, choosing to off-set the transaction fee is just a little something extra added to their donation. But for your church, a little can go a long way and this can add up quickly. You could save hundreds, if not thousands, a year with the right rates and donors offsetting fees. What could your church do with that extra money?
You can find additional information on how to enable the donor off-set feature here.
3. Multiple Donation Categories
Did you know that donors are more likely to give when they know where their money is going?
Create an open discussion between you and your attendees about church finances. Tell your congregation about the life change that is happening through the church because of their generosity.
Perhaps you have a Church Benevolence fund that is supporting a local food bank. Or maybe there’s a Missions fund to help those preaching the gospel overseas. Or possibly you have a fund that goes directly to eliminating church debt. Regardless, tell your donors about the different funds and where the money is going. You can use the Helper Text within SecureGive to add additional information about the life change happening as a result of their gift to that specific category.
But go a step beyond that by allowing attendees to give directly to the missions God calls them to.
Multiple donation categories allow your donors to designate where their money is going. Create a donation category for Tithes, one for Offerings, one for Mission Outreach, create a category for each of the different needs and ministries of your church.The great thing is SecureGive allows your donors to give to more than one category at once. So let’s say they want to give their regular tithe in addition to sponsoring a child’s summer camp experience, they can do all that through a single transaction.
You can find further instructions on how to set up donation categories here.
4. Direct Category Link
Are you sending an email to your attendees about a Women’s Conference? Maybe you’re sharing a post on Facebook about an upcoming youth trip? Or perhaps you’re preparing a special love offering. Whatever the case may be, a direct category link will be a helpful resource.
A direct category link is an easy way to share with your members what’s going on in your church and an even easier way for them to donate directly to a fund, support a cause, or complete a purchase. This feature allows you to generate a direct link to a specific donation or purchase category/categories that you can then share with your attendees.
Through this link, you can choose if you want to allow donors to set up recurring transactions and you can also choose to pre-fill a suggested amount for donors to give. So let’s say you have a mission trip that is coming up and you want to allow attendees to make monthly payments for the cost of the trip. You can pre-fill the monthly payment amount of $300 and allow them to set up a recurring transaction so the payment automatically comes out once a month for the 3 months duration of payment.
You can find instructions on how to send a direct category link here.
5. Embeddable Widgets
The Corona virus rocked our world to say the least. We quickly had to transition to only-online church services. Whether your church is still in the only-online world or things are starting to open back up, make sure your digital presence stays strong.
Allow your attendees to make donations directly from your website by adding an embeddable widget. By embedding your SecureGive page directly into your website, you increase the ease of making a donation and eliminate a few clicks in the online process. This feature is particularly useful to give a quick-one time gift, a tool especially helpful for the first-time giver. And as you know, removing any barrier you can for a first-time giver is critically important.
Find more information about the embeddable widget here.
6. Giving Statements
Did you know you can issue giving statements directly through SecureGive?
Every year churches lose hours, and even days, of time manually creating, printing, and mailing giving statements. It doesn’t have to be that way. With SecureGive, you can generate giving statements for your entire SecureGive database with just a few quick clicks.
Save time and avoid frustration by issuing Giving Statements directly through SecureGive. When you issue a giving statement, your donors will automatically be notified that the statement is ready for them via email. You also have the additional option to print giving statements directly from SecureGive. To take it one step farther, you, as an administrator, will be able to view each member’s individual statement whether you decide to email the statement, print and mail, or do both.
To find out how to issue giving statements here.
7. Help Center
Whether you need help as an administrator in SecureGive, your givers have questions, or your marketing team is in need of resources, make sure to visit the Help Center. You’ll find step-by-step instructions on everything you need to know regarding SecureGive. You’ll also find additional resources like giving instructions, informational videos, and downloadable images. We want to equip both you and your church with resources to make navigating SecureGive even easier than it already is.
How many of these features are you utilizing?
Are you currently making the most out of your giving software?
Start implementing these 7 features to save time, get the most for your money, and even increase donor engagement and generosity in your church.